Mississippi, Goddamn, Continued

I'm sorry, but I can't get enough of the story of Clayton Kelly, Mississippi citizen-journalist and stalker of dementia patients. Lucky for me, the story keeps growing and blooming into great inexhaustible blossoms of pure weirdness. Now, we discover that Clayton Kelly, citizen journalist, may not have dreamed up this appalling scam all by his lonesome.

Mark Mayfield of Ridgeland, an attorney and state and local tea party leader, was arrested Thursday along with Richard Sager, a Laurel elementary school P.E. teacher and high school soccer coach. Police said they also charged John Beachman Mary of Hattiesburg, but he was not taken into custody because of "extensive medical conditions." All face felony conspiracy charges. Sager also was charged with felony tampering with evidence, and Mary faces two conspiracy counts.

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I never trusted P.E. teachers, I'll tell you that.

The legal wrangling over this already has become a barrel with no apparent bottom to it.

Camp sparred with Madison Investigator Vickie Currie when she took the stand at Kelly's hearing Thursday. He said there's no evidence Kelly profited by $250 or more. But Currie countered, "I believe (Rose Cochran's) image is priceless." Camp said Kelly's intentions were "not lewd or licentious." Currie countered, "I believe it was indecent." Currie also testified Rose Cochran, who is unaware of her surroundings, was unconscious and in "bed clothes," when Kelly photographed her. She said the photos appeared to be taken at bedside, very close to Rose Cochran inside her room. Camp has claimed Kelly took them from outside her room.

OK, canons of ethics and all that but, seriously, does Kelly's lawyer think this makes Kelly look less skeevy?

This Mayfield guy seems to be the biggest fish caught up in the net so far.

Mayfield has been an ardent supporter of McDaniel, as have the Mississippi Tea Party and the Central Mississippi Tea Party, both of which list Mayfield on their boards of directors. Tea party officials did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. A photo posted recently on the McDaniel campaign's Facebook page shows Mayfield and other volunteers, saying, "Here's part of a crew that reached over 500 homes walking in Madison today. Great work team!"

Naturally, there is more than a little talk from the camp of Chris McDaniel, the Tea Party guy challenging incumbent Thad Cochran, that the whole business is a nifty bit of reverse ratfking from Cochran supporters. (There's no evidence so far that this was anything but Clayton Kelly being a freelance skeeve for the cause.) But that would seem to be belied by the curious fact that Richard Sager, the P.E. teacher, is also charged with felony tampering with evidence, and he's being held on a half-million bail, and he apparently doesn't yet have a lawyer. If anyone's ready to be fitted for canary feathers, I'm thinking it might be Sager.

The race is reckoned to be close -- Mississippi in-state polling is notoriously primitive -- and, to those people enamored of the completely phony Republican Establishment-vs.-Tea Party binary, it is said to be the last chance for the latter to flex its muscles this time around. That's nonsense, of course, but it is by far the most entertaining race of the spring. That's something, I think.